Italian mayors sell off houses for less than $2

HOPEFUL holiday home owners who are looking for some peace and quiet could bag a property for less than $2 in an idyllic Italian village.

Local authorities of three increasingly empty Italian towns are hoping to attract new residents by cutting the prices of some of their houses to just $2.

Sadly there is a small catch, as most of the properties need around $35,214 worth of renovation work doing. And though their locations are breath taking lots of the houses on offer need rather a lot of work doing before they can be lived in.

But for someone with time on their hands, they should look to the three towns the Mail Online reported to have have embraced the offer. These are Gangi, in Sicily, Carrega Ligure in Piedmont and Lecce nei Marsi in Abruzzi.

The mayors of all three are concerned that if new life is not breathed back in, then they are in danger of becoming ghost-towns. Plagued by a lack of employment, natural disaster and even pirates, there are villages in Italy which lie completely empty.

Gangi may look sprawling from a distance, but the population is dwindling Gangi may look sprawling from a distance, but the population is dwindling In Gangi, houses needing less renovation can be bought for $196 and a few very crumbling properties are being given away for free.

The houses are mostly all two storeys high and date back to the 1800s when they were built for peasant families.

For those who prefer more rugged surroundings, Carrega Ligure has houses nestled around five valleys that used to house monks. It's unpolluted and absolutely freezing in the winter, due to its high altitude.

Lecce nei Marsi is in a Unesco world heritage site, its mayor Gianluca de Angelis told the Mail Online that 'I want to avoid that the historical centre crumbles to pieces, there are no public funds for maintenance and I'd like young couples to return.'

Houses in the village come complete with their own gardens, as Lecce nei Marsi is surrounded by forests in the middle of Italy.